Friday’s Seeds: Hylomecon seed please stand up

I meant to write about this a while ago; it was never a good time for it.
The question of how to easily recognize Hylomecon from the Stylophorum species had been long clarified and I see no point to repeat it all.
If you want/need to know how to correctly identify Hylomecon , Stylophorum diphyllum and Stylophorum lasiocarpum, please read this well written post on Garden Myths blog:
https://www.gardenmyths.com/hylomecon-japonica-which-is-the-real-plant/

Now that we know how to distinguish the species, with good close-up pictures of the seeds we can avoid to mistake one for another in the seeds exchanges ;)

If we would have the chance to look at fresh seeds, it wouldn’t be hard to distinguish them because the seeds are equipped with particular elaiosomes, quite beautiful in the case of S. diphyllum. Unfortunately after the seeds dry out, or after they are placed in moist storage, these fatty structures fade rapidly.

Regrettably Hylomecon vernalis (syn. H. japonica) rarely, if ever, sets seeds in cultivation in our region (and elsewhere, I understand).
I suspect there is a self- incompatibility problem, the majority of plants belonging to the same clone, which was vegetatively propagated over a long period of time.

I have watched it closely in my garden in the last two years hoping that maybe the others are just missing the seeds (the capsules are explosive). But no, the capsules form and seem OK, only to disappoint upon opening. You can imagine the excitement when I received H. vernalis seeds in late summer! And moist packed no less! Because of this I postponed washing them out to take proper pictures.

Let’s see a comparison now; all seeds after moist storage since late summer and on 1 mm grid.